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Productivity, the key to a better life
Leong Wee Keat

weekeat@mediacorp.com.sg
SINGAPORE
While some may dismiss this as insignificant information, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong felt this "getai index" was an indicator “ that the economy has turned around and that the common people and small businesses have benefitted from this turnaround”.
Thanking Singaporeans — unions, workers, employers and government officials — for a job well done in tackling the economic crisis last year, PM Lee also sought to temper expectations. Even though growth forecasts have been revised upwards to 13 to 15 per cent this year, PM Lee said that a “realistic target” in the future would be between 3 and 5 per cent.
He also urged workers and employers to “please be careful with wage expectationsthe past three years — economic growth is also “not spectacular as what we thought”, averaging about 5 per cent a year.” — as compared to
In all his three speeches last night, PM Lee stressed the need to raise productivity to keep the economy growing and allow Singaporeans to have a good standard of living.
He also urged Singaporean workers to upgrade their knowledge and skills so that they become more valuable to their companies.
“Low-skilled workers are under the most pressure. There are millions of workers in China and India. They are willing to accept very low wages — much less than us,” PM Lee said in his Malay speech. “If you want to earn more, you must train hard.”
He cited the example of Mr Tong Shiang Wee, who joined the oil and gas industry 26 years ago.
Despite having no school qualifications and starting from the lowest rung, Mr Tong’s attitude was “must try, no harm trying”, PM Lee said. The 47-year-old kept learning on the job and attended courses to upgrade himself.
Today, he is a manufacturing specialist overseeing 70 technicians and four production supervisors. “That’s what job upgrading means,” PM Lee said.
Employers play a key role too — they must find promising business opportunities and grow a competitive and profitable business.
Raising productivity, however, will not be easy for small and medium Enterprises (SMEs), PM Lee acknowledged.
They may have to turn to automation or merge with other SMEs in the face of growing competition.
PM Lee assured SMEs that the Government has designed many schemes to help them upgrade equipment and improve their service quality. Last week, for example, Spring Singapore set aside nearly $30 million to help SMEs recruit fresh graduates and provide internships for undergraduates and polytechnic students, which Mr Lee hopes SMEs will take up.
He cited food and beverage operator Mr Bean as an example of a SME which has transformed itself successfully.
It went from a single stall 15 years ago to more than 50 branches today, employing more than 450 employees.
It even has an outlet in Tokyo’s Shibuya shopping district.
Turning to the public sector, PM Lee said it must “do the right thing” in seeking out efficiency gains even though it is harder to measure Government outcomes.
He cited the Ministry of Defence’s use of automation to test NSmen’s individual physical fitness as an example.
Instead of using stopwatches and pieces of paper to record scores, sensors are used to count the number of chin-ups and sit-ups done, while radio frequency identification tags automatically log participants’ times during the 2.4km run.
As a result, only six physical fitness instructors are needed to conduct tests for 600 NSmen today. Before, 14 instructors were required to conduct tests for 300 NSmen. “No standing around and waiting (for NSmen).
And that’s what all Government departments must learn to do,” said PM Lee.
Productivity has to be the responsibility of all Singaporeans.

“That is the way Singapore can stay ahead of the competition, our firms can do well and all of us can improve their lives,” he added.— Most of the songs belted out at this month’s Hungry Ghost Festival are the same as those from last year but the fees charged by getai performers have spiked.

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A tale of two Singapore firms and the oil spill in the United States

The Singapore economy may have shaken off the recession and is rebounding with a double-digit growth forecast but the country cannot expect such stellar growth in the long term.

Last night, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong highlighted how firms should remain competitive by creating value, developing expertise and growing a profitable business.

Citing the examples of Keppel and SembCorp Marine, PM Lee said companies must find promising business opportunities. Together, both Keppel and SembCorp Marine make 70 per cent of oil-rigs in the world.

Recounting a chat he had with a Keppel executive during a recent visit to Houston, Texas, PM Lee said he asked the man if Singapore had built the oil rig that had exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, causing massive pollution.

“He said: ‘No, but we built the rig from which they are mounting the rescue operation’,” said PM Lee.

Both Keppel and SembCorp Marine pay good bonuses to workers — reported to be nine months last year — and several hundred million dollars in taxes to the Government every year, said PM Lee.

“So, not bad for a country which has no oil,” he said, to laughter. SATISH CHENEY

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weakness in property stocks

CityDev (C09.SG) off 3.3% at $11.56

CapitaLand (C31.SG) off 1.5% at $3.94

in response to new government measures to cool housing market

BullishTempo ( Date: 30-Aug-2010 15:10) Posted:

STI +0.5%; Well prepared for slower economic grow: DBS

Tags: Genting Singapore | Genting Singapore Plc | Olam International | Singapore Telecommunications | Singtel
WRITTEN BY THE EDGE
MONDAY, 30 AUGUST 2010 15:04
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Singapore shares likely to end on positive note, helped by gains across Asian markets, firmer US stock futures, according to Dow Jones.

STI’s upside, however, likely limited given weakness in property stocks, with CityDev (C09.SG) off 3.3% at $11.56, CapitaLand (C31.SG) off 1.5% at $3.94 in response to new government measures to cool housing market. Index +0.5% at 2,954.73, likely to face resistance at 2,969 (Aug 11 high).
While uncertainties over global economic health remain, DBS Vickers says downside for STI in near term likely limited.

“We believe that the local bourse is well prepared for growth moderation in 2H...This is because the year-to-date flat performance in the STI showed that investors had spent the past eight months worrying about uncertainties and ignored 1H growth,” says the research house.

Overall market volume remains modest. Notable gainers among STI components include Genting Singapore (G13.SG), +3.1% at $1.65, Olam (O32.SG), +2.2% at $2.74, SingTel (Z74.SG), +1.3% at $3.04.

x 0

Monday: 30 AUGUST 2010

prIce actIOn

15:18:55

0.300

1,000,000

Bought From Seller

09:01:35

0.310

1,045,000

Bought From Seller

09:00:04

0.310

2,000,000

Bought From Seller

3:30pm SUMMARY

Price Trades Volume Sold to Buyer Mid Bought from Seller

0.295 12 167,000 167,000 0 0

0.300 71 8,242,000 3,589,000 0 4,653,000

0.305 32 4,590,000 4,279,000 0 311,000

0.310 159 12,440,000 6,276,000 0 6,164,000

0.315 7 187,000 0 0 187,000

TOTAL 281 25,626,000 14,311,000 0 11,315,000

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What is this Singapore Spirit?

ALICIA WONG

alicia@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE

He defined the Singapore spirit as being made up of four attributes: Determination, trust, competence and confidence.

Mr Lee pointed out that “it is the determination that makes us press on when things are tough, like in the recession last year”.

And when “forces try to pull us apart”, such as extremist terrorism after 911, “it is the trust that keeps us together”.

Mr Lee continued: “It’s the competence, quiet pride and discipline that make sure things go right, like when we hosted the Youth Olympic Games (YOG).”

And finally, it is “the confidence that we will prevail come what may”.

While we are proud of our Asian cultures and heritage, Mr Lee said the Singapore spirit is not based on a common race, language or religion. “It is based on deeper things which we share,” he said, citing shared values, shared loyalty to Singapore, shared responsibility for each other and shared memories, dreams and aspirations.

“We have to pass this spirit to the next generation,” he said. Then, they will have the “same conviction” and make the “right choices”.

The spirit is not only passed on through schools, but also when youth are involved in community, pursue passionate causes or tackle daunting challenges, said Mr Lee.

In trying out “new things”, they gain confidence and maturity, he noted.— Posing this question in his National Day Rally speech yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said it is an especially relevant issue in an increasingly globalised world, as Singapore grows more cosmopolitan and hosts more visitors each year.

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S’porean who volunteers at deaf school in Timor Leste ‘A role model and inspiration’
ALICIA WONG
For 23 hearing-impaired Timorese students, having Mr Alvan Yap (picture) volunteer at their school means they can attend class five days a week, instead of only three days a week before he began teaching them in January.
It also means that they can learn a standardised sign language, which will help them communicate better with fellow Timorese.
Mr Yap, 33, was singled out as an example of how young Singaporeans who venture abroad make a difference to others through volunteering during Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally speech yesterday.
Mr Yap, who works in the publishing industry and used to teach at the Singapore School for the Deaf, now volunteers with the Singapore International Federation. He will be teaching at the Agape Deaf International School in Dili, Timor Leste, until the end of the year.
Mr Yap, who suffers from severe hearing loss, was featured in news reports last month for his work in Dili. There, he teaches students, aged eight to 39, proper sign language.

“He is also a role model and an inspiration to the kids, as well as some adults,” said Mr Lee.

ALICIA WONG

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Military college and education centre to be named after Goh Keng Swee

ALICIA WONG

alicia@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE

Now, there will be two complexes bearing his name, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced last evening.

The Singapore Command and Staff College (SCSC) — the highest institute for training senior officers in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) — will be renamed the Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College.

The Ministry of Education’s (MOE) Phase II Headquarters Building at North Buona Vista Road will be named the Goh Keng Swee Centre for Education.

As the first Defence Minister, Dr Goh was “instrumental in building up the SAF”, said Mr Lee. Not only in the hardware acquired, but in the creation of a “thinking SAF” that is able to “outwit and out-manoeuvre the enemy”, he said.

While most of the hardware has been replaced, “Dr Goh’s emphasis on developing talent, and on a thinking SAF, endures”, said Mr Lee.

And when Dr Goh became Education Minister in 1979, he “totally revamped the system”. Dr Goh started the process of “continuous improvement that has created an education system admired all over the world”, Mr Lee said.

The MOE building to be named after Dr Goh will be the “nerve centre of Singapore education”, said Mr Lee.

Housing a new Academy of Singapore Teachers and specialist academies for the English Language, Physical Education, Sports and the Arts, the complex aims to upgrade the professionalism of teachers.

Dr Goh was part of a team of founding fathers, said Mr Lee, citing others including Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, Foreign Minister S Rajaratnam, Minister for Social Affairs Othman Wok, Finance Minister Hon Sui Sen, Minister for Law E W Barker, Mr Lim Kim San who broke the back of Singapore’s housing problem and Deputy Prime Minister Toh Chin Chye.

“It is important that the nation remembers the founding fathers properly. It’s not just a matter of gratitude, but it’s to stay true to the ideals that they fought for and to remind ourselves to continue striving to be one united people, regardless of race, language or religion,” Mr Lee said.

“It isn’t yet time to decide how to do so, but it is something we should think about for the future, and which I felt I needed to talk about today.”— When former Deputy Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee passed away in May, many suggested naming something after him so that his contributions would not be forgotten.

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It’s a two-way street

We must all do our part to ensure road safety

Letter from Tan Jia Ler, Lynn

ACCORDING to a report in

It is true that in many fatal road accidents, motorcyclists and cyclists are often the victims because they are more vulnerable compared to motorists.

This perceived “weakness” is also why motorcyclists and cyclists tend to garner more sympathy, as it is natural for people to empathise and side with the weaker group.

Motorists then, inevitably, become the bullies.

It is sometimes difficult to acknowledge that the more seriously wounded party could be the one at fault.

In the ongoing debate about the rights of motorists, motorcyclists and cyclists, motorists

are fighting a losing battle because of such preconceptions.

While motorists should be more careful around motorcyclists and cyclists on the roads because they can be easily knocked down and sustain serious injuries, perhaps it is also fair that motorcyclists and cyclists be mindful of how they ride.

We are all too familiar with dangerous riding habits of motorcyclists, such as weaving in and out of traffic and positioning themselves between the kerb and a turning vehicle.

Also common are examples of cyclists ignoring red lights, double white lines and other traffic regulations, or those who switch from the roads to the pavements whenever it suits them.

Worse still, when a motorist flouts traffic rules, he can be easily traced by his registration number.

How do we go about tracking down errant cyclists without physically nabbing them?

For us all to share the roads and coexist, it must be a two-way street and we must all do our part and act responsibly towards one another.Today (“Motorcyclist convicted of road rage wins appeal”, Aug 27), a French motorcyclist was recently spared a one-week jail sentence for a road rage incident against a driver.

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How the Internet is making us stupid

Nicholas Carr

Although the World Wide Web has been around for only 20 years, it is difficult to imagine life without it. But our dependence on the Internet has a dark side. A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the Net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers.The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember. I was inspired to write the book after I realised that I was losing my own capacity for concentration and contemplation.

DI VIDED ATTENTION

The common thread in these disabilities is the division of attention. The richness of our thoughts, our memories and even our personalities hinges on our ability to focus the mind and sustain concentration.

Only when we pay close attention to a new piece of information are we able to associate it “meaningfully and systematically with knowledge already well established in memory”, writes the Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel. Such associations are essential to mastering complex concepts and thinking critically.

When we’re constantly distracted and interrupted, as we tend to be when looking at the screens of our computers and mobile phones, our brains can’t forge the strong and expansive neural connections that give distinctiveness and depth to our thinking. Our thoughts become disjointed, our memories weak.

In an article in

Some indicated that certain computer tasks, like playing video games, increase the speed at which people can shift their focus among icons and other images on screens. Other studies, however, found that such rapid shifts in focus, even if performed adeptly, result in less rigorous and “more automatic” thinking.

In one experiment at a United States university, half a class of students was allowed to use Internet-connected laptops during a lecture, while the other had to keep their computers shut. Those who browsed the Web performed much worse on a subsequent test of how well they retained the lecture’s content.

Our growing use of screen-based media, Dr Greenfield said, has strengthened visual-spatial intelligence, which can strengthen the ability to do jobs that involve keeping track of lots of rapidly changing signals, like piloting a plane. But that has been accompanied by “new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes”, including “abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem-solving, critical thinking, and imagination”. We’re becoming, in a word, shallower.

Studies of our behaviour online support this conclusion. German researchers found that Web browsers usually spend less than 10 seconds looking at a page. Even people doing academic research online tend to “bounce” rapidly between different documents, rarely reading more than a page or two, according to a University College London study.

Such mental juggling takes a big toll. In a recent experiment at Stanford University, researchers gave various cognitive tests to 49 people who do a lot of media multi-tasking and 52 people who multi-task much less frequently.

The heavy multi-taskers performed poorly on all the tests. They were more easily distracted, had less control over their attention, and were much less able to distinguish important information from trivia.

The researchers were surprised by the results. They expected the intensive multitaskers to have gained some mental advantages.

But that wasn’t the case. In fact, the multi-taskers weren’t even good at multitasking.

“Everything distracts them,” said Mr Clifford Nass, one of the researchers.Science last year, Dr Patricia Greenfield, a developmental psychologist who runs UCLA’s Children’s Digital Media Center, reviewed dozens of studies on how different media technologies influence our cognitive abilities.

BRAINS REMODELLED

It would be one thing if the ill effects went away as soon as we turned off our computers and mobiles. But they don’t. By changing our habits of mind, each new technology strengthens certain neural pathways and weakens others.

The pioneering neuroscientist Michael Merzenich believes our brains are being “massively remodelled” by our ever-intensifying use of the Web and related media. In a conversation late last year, he said that he was profoundly worried about the cognitive consequences of the constant distractions and interruptions the Internet bombards us with.

The long-term effect on the quality of our intellectual lives, he said, could be “deadly”.

Not all distractions are bad. As most of us know, if we concentrate too intensively on a tough problem, we can get stuck in a mental rut. But if we let the problem sit unattended for a time, we often return to it with a fresh perspective and a burst of creativity.

Research by the Dutch psychologist Ap Dijksterhuis indicates that such breaks in our attention give our unconscious mind time to grapple with a problem, bringing to bear information and cognitive processes unavailable to conscious deliberation.

But Dr Dijksterhuis’ work also shows that our unconscious thought processes don’t engage with a problem until we’ve clearly and consciously defined the problem. If we don’t have a particular goal in mind, he writes, “unconscious thought does not occur”.

What we seem to be sacrificing in our surfing and searching is our capacity to engage in the quieter, attentive modes of thought that underpin contemplation, reflection and introspection. The Web never encourages us to slow down. It keeps us in a state of perpetual mental locomotion. The rise of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, which pump out streams of brief messages, has only exacerbated the problem.

There’s nothing wrong with absorbing information quickly and in bits and pieces.

We routinely run our eyes over books and magazines to get the gist of a piece of writing and decide whether it warrants more thorough reading. What’s disturbing is that skimming is becoming our dominant mode of thought.

Once a means to an end, a way to identify information for further study, it’s becoming an end in itself — our preferred method of both learning and analysis.

Dazzled by the Net’s treasures, we have been blind to the damage we may be doing to our intellectual lives and even our culture.

The Daily Telegraph

The writer is the author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. This is an excerpt of a longer article.

I’ve been studying this research for the past three years, in the course of writing my new book,

Even when I was away from my computer, my mind seemed hungry for constant stimulation, for quick hits of information. I felt perpetually distracted.

Could my loss of focus be a result of all the time I’ve spent online? In search of an answer to that question, I began to dig into the many psychological, behavioural and neurological studies that examine how the tools we use to think with — our information technologies — shape our habits of mind.

The picture that emerges is troubling, at least to anyone who values the subtlety, rather than just the speed, of human thought.

People who read text studded with links, the studies show, comprehend less than those who read words printed on pages.

People who watch busy multimedia presentations remember less than those who take in information in a more sedate and focused manner. People who are continually distracted by emails, updates and other messages understand less than those who are able to concentrate. And people who juggle many tasks are often less creative and less productive than those who do one thing at a time.

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Firms which buy their equipment rather than renting them would have an advantage.

Otherwise, they would have to decide on how long the lease would be because the longer the lease period, the bigger the liabilities would be on the book.

PwC real estate and hospitality leader Choo Eng Beng

pharoah88 ( Date: 30-Aug-2010 13:24) Posted:

Proposal to show rental cost on balance sheets

Companies may show higher debt levels with any rule change: Experts

Ephraim Se ow

ephraimseow@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE

The new rules are proposed by the UK-based International Accounting Standards Board and the USbased Financial Accounting Standards Board, which jointly released a new leasing exposure draft on Aug 17.

This proposal would require firms to include their lease expenses on their balance sheets and are to report their total rental cost as soon as the leases start.

This means that companies may show a higher level of debt in their books and firms may also incur higher compliance costs, accounting experts said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) estimates that there are currently $22 billion worth of operating leases or liabilities kept off the balance sheet by the 20 largest firms by market capitalisation here as at July 31.

The audit firm has estimated that, on average, the changes will raise a company’s reported debt load by 58 per cent.

On whether shareholders might be taken aback by the sudden surge in a company’s debt level, Mr Choo Eng Beng, real estate and hospitality leader, PwC, said: “Those who perhaps have not looked at the obligations of the company might not be aware that there are such lease obligations that the firm might have to pay.”

However, he added that more savvy shareholders and analysts would have been aware since companies with large operating leases, such as shipping firms and airlines, usually report lease payments in their general accounts.

Industry analysts added that, going forward, companies would have to re-strategise how they finance their operations to remain competitive.

“Importantly, the new proposals represent a fundamentally different approach to recording executory contracts, which may have follow on effects to other non-lease arrangements,” noted Mr Tan Seng Choon, assurance partner, Ernst and Young.

“Firms which buy their equipment rather than rent them would have an advantage. Otherwise, they would have to decide on how long the lease would be because the longer the lease period, the bigger the liabilities would be on the book,” said Mr Choo.— The proposed revamp on the accounting for leases will help boost transparency among companies here as they would soon be required to highlight how much they spend on rental cost in their books.